Rear shoes only

Vicki&Milo

Vicki&Milo

The Apprectices
Jun 7, 2005
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Is there any reason why you shoudn't have your horse shod only on the back.
I've known of plenty in my time shod in front but never ony the hinds (although surely if they are actually working from behind that would make sense).
I've tried for over a year with Milo barefoot but he was never really happy so I went back to shoes, however he lost both fronts after a week. I decided to try him out anyway and see how he went and he's sound as a pound, someone tell me why I shouldn't do this?!

Thanks

Vicki x
 
The usual scenario is for horses to have healthier feet behind, possibly because they provide most of the propulsion and get more stimulation whilst the horse is growing. You often see horses with flat soles in front and concavity behind.

My guess is that if your horse is currently fine without shoes in front, he'll be even better behind, so there would be no reason to continue shoeing behind in isolation. All sorts of things influence their comfort and capability, the state of the grass they're eating being a major one.
 
Whenever a front comes off my lad you always know about it (picture a dog with a thorn in his foot;)), but whenever a back comes off he barely notices it.
I never really thought about it TBH:eek:
 
Yann said:
The usual scenario is for horses to have healthier feet behind, possibly because they provide most of the propulsion and get more stimulation whilst the horse is growing. You often see horses with flat soles in front and concavity behind.

My guess is that if your horse is currently fine without shoes in front, he'll be even better behind, so there would be no reason to continue shoeing behind in isolation. All sorts of things influence their comfort and capability, the state of the grass they're eating being a major one.
Click to expand...

These are only the first set of shoes he's had on since giving up on barefoot due to him never being happy so I can't imagne his rears would suddenly have improved.....at least they better not have after a year of waddling around.
 
I'm not saying it doesn't happen but it would be unusual to find a horse that had better feet in front that it did behind. Have you changed feeds or fields recently, something like that might have made a difference?
 
Me and Milo are like some sort of Gypsys, we seem to have moved every three weeks (not quite literally but not far off), but there was never any different wherever we are. Initially when he first went barefoot he was on hoof supplements and bailys lo cal balancer, since then he was feedless for a while over summer and then went onto chaff and not heating mix just to stop him dropping to much weight now there's very little grass, so I suppose it is possible but it seems unlikely.
Maybe it is just becasue he doesn't (and never really has) actually worked from behind and with my lardy arse on him finds the weight in his back paws? It obviously didn't help that he'd been shod from 2 :(
In any case, if he's happy, then I am, so long as I'm not likely to be doing him any harm??
 
Agree with Yann, but just to add there's no reason that I know of not to have rear shoes only - one of the horses in our field currently has only rear shoes due to a suspensory ligament injury - he was always barefoot with great feet until he injured himself, and vets have asked that he is shod behind for the moment.
 
Well we're never normal so I'm not concerned about that tee hee, just see no point in shoeing if he doesnt need it, but likewise don't want to casue him long term problems.

Thanks
 
I've used boots only on backs before. IME fronts are more likely to be obviously cr*p or sore because of the condition they're in but backs tend to be more likely to suffer from just plain too much wear.
 
My Arab mare went for years with shoes on the backs only. She had a dodgey hoof wall injury at the back, and was happier shod there for protection. Initially i asked the farrier about it, as i had never seen a horse shod like it, but he felt that there was no reason to shoe the fronts as her feet were fine there.(dont fix whats not broken)

Never caused any problems for her.
 
I always thought you didn't have just backs cos it makes the horse uneven god knows why i thought that! If people do have just backs i was soo wrong lol!!
 
Generally the front feet are shod because they bear more of the weight of the horse. The back feet are generally more likely to stand up to being left un-shod as they bear less weight and therefore less wear and tear. If a horse is ok u-shod in front, and there are no veterinary/farriery reasons to have shoes on behind (ie. some tendon injuries may need shoeing for support, or maybe the horse has bad cracks in its hoof behind), then in most cases there would be no reason to shoe behind either.
 
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